Hugh Southey KC > Matrix Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Matrix Chambers Offices
GRIFFIN BUILDING, GRAY'S INN
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Hugh Southey KC
Position
Hugh Southey has led at all levels up to and including the Supreme Court as well as in the Privy Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. He has led in 26 hearings before the Supreme Court. Hugh has also litigated in a range of jurisdictions including Northern Ireland, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Turks and Caicos and the United States. Hugh specialises in public law in a wide range of fields including human rights, regulatory, prison law, inquests, crime, extradition, mental health, terrorism, immigration, discrimination and elections. Hugh litigates public law and human rights arguments both in judicial review proceedings and civil claims. Hugh also appears in criminal appeals and Court of Protection matters. Hugh’s human rights practice has expanded so that it includes a number of cases regarding privacy. Recent key cases including: R (A) v SSJ [2021] UKSC 37; R (Hemmati) v SSHD [2021] AC 143; R (P) v SSHD [2020] AC 185; R(Stott) v SSJ [2020] AC 51.
Career
Solicitor 1991-96; called 1996; Inner Temple; QC 2010; Recorder 2010 to date. Publications of note: Wrote (with Amanda Weston, Jude Bunting and Raj Desai) ‘Judicial Review: A Practical Guide’ (3rd edition); edited (with Lord Justice Fulford) the ‘United Kingdom Human Rights Reports’; wrote (again with Lord Justice Fulford) ‘A Criminal Practitioners Guide to Judicial Review and Case Stated’; recently written a chapter in ‘Human Rights in the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime and Judicial Review: Law and Practice’.
Memberships
ILPA; Association of Prison Lawyers; Administrative Law Bar Association; Prisoners Advice Service; Mental Health Lawyers Association; Human Rights Lawyers Association; Legal Action; Liberty; Justice; Amnesty International.
Education
Harrow Weald Sixth Form College; Imperial College (1987 MEng Chemical Engineering); City of London Polytechnic (1989 CPE and Law Society Finals).
Leisure
Running, skiing, cricket (watching), theatre, music, travel.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Police law (claimant)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Hugh Southey KC – Matrix Chambers ‘Wonderfully supportive and approachable. Completely on top of the facts and knows the case law inside out.’
With a ‘very strong cross-section of expertise,’ the police law team at Matrix Chambers instructs on police misfeasance and misconduct, inquest and inquiry work with a specialism in representing bereaved families. Phillippa Kaufmann KC instructs on a breadth of investigatory and correctional cases arising from the criminal justice system, while also advising on false imprisonment and malicious prosecution cases under the Human Rights Act. Hugh Southey KC advises on Article 6 and 8 claims, while Richard Hermer KC provides counsel on high-profile civil claims related to alleged police corruption. Ifeanyi Odogwu represents bereaved families in cases concerning deaths in custody, while Jesse Nicholls represents a number of individuals who have suffered life-changing injuries as a result of police restraint.
London Bar > Immigration (including business immigration)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Hugh Southey KC – Matrix Chambers ‘Hugh is an excellent silk and one of the best in the field. He is incredibly knowledgeable about all things immigration related and has unrivalled experience on the claimant side in arguing some of the most cutting edge cases of the day.’
Matrix Chambers covers the full breadth of work and courts, with particular strengths in trafficking, modern slavery, immigration systems, and publicly-funded work more generally, while sports and business immigration have been a growing focus for the set. The set continues to engage with high-profile litigation, with Raza Husain KC, amidst his wider practice in refugee and HNW individuals asylum claims, has been leading a team in relation to the judicial review around the government’s Rwanda policy; Jonathan Glasson KC acting on behalf of the government in respect of the Shamima Begum appeal; and Christopher Buttler KC being a leading counsel challenging the Home Secretary’s pushback’s policy regarding the small boats in the Channel. Hugh Southey KC and Samantha Knights KC have been active in relation to work around exclusion on the basis of national security and EU asylum claims respectively.
London Bar > Administrative law and human rights
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Hugh Southey KC –Matrix Chambers ‘Hugh is a key player in human rights law. He is completely on top of the facts and knows the case law inside out.‘